A new study published in Royal Society Open Science found that citizens who lack confidence in their government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak show heightened fear and paranoia. This heightened fear is then linked to increased distress.
It is clear that the novel coronavirus has had drastic repercussions on the lives of citizens all over the world, with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling for unprecedented social distancing on a global scale.
As the success of such restrictions is dependent on citizens believing that the restrictions are effective, the authors of the new study wanted to explore people’s reactions to the new measures. They further wanted to explore how citizens’ mental health may be impacted by their perceptions of these restrictions, and their perceptions of the government’s efficacy in controlling the outbreak.
“I am generally interested in how humans make decisions under uncertainty. The pandemic was for most a major change in lifestyle,” said researcher Gerit Pfuhl, a professor in cognitive sciences at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
“Originally, we focused on Norway but — thanks to open science — it soon became an international study. Studying and learning how different states cope with the pandemic was fascinating for me.”
The researchers distributed an online survey to 2,285 citizens from the United States, Norway, Germany, Israel, Brazil, and Columbia. All surveys were completed somewhere between March 12, 2020, and March 30, 2020.
The surveys asked respondents to rate how effective they thought their government’s actions were in controlling the outbreak. They were also asked to rate how effective they believed certain restrictions were (e.g., quarantine, school closures). Finally, various psychological measures were included, such as feelings of control over the virus, worry about the virus, perceived risk of contracting the virus, and general distress.
The researchers found that a majority of respondents (39%) felt their country was “doing enough to fight the outbreak”, while 34% felt that their country was not, and 26% reported that they did not know.
The less respondents believed in the efficacy of their government’s reactions to the virus, the higher their worry and fear about it. This worry and fear was then linked to elevated distress.
“Belief in that one’s country can cope with the outbreak is beneficial for one’s mental health – if you don’t believe your country is doing enough to fight the outbreak then you think you have a higher risk of infection with the coronavirus,” Pfuhl told PsyPost.
Citizens from Brazil, Columbia, and the USA showed heightened distress levels. Colombian respondents additionally demonstrated elevated paranoia and had the lowest scores for being able to differentiate facts from conspiracy theories about the virus. The researchers discuss the critical finding that people’s lack of confidence in their government’s actions was tied to elevated fears and paranoia — what the authors call, “a worrying finding given the rise of conspiracy theories and social destabilizations.”
A lower feeling of control toward the virus was also linked to increased distress, but risk of contracting the virus was not. As the researchers infer, “This might indicate that participants were distressed about concerns partially unrelated to the health-related impacts of COVID-19. Indeed, economic fear and worry about relatives were mentioned as prominent impacts by many respondents.”
Interestingly, individualist countries appeared to feel less control over the virus. Respondents from the USA, Germany, and Norway had lower scores for feeling in control than Brazil, Columbia, and Israel. Feelings of control were lowest in Germany.
“The large majority thinks that their own behavior is efficient in preventing a coronavirus infection, and the majority also engages in protective actions, e.g. social distancing and hand-washing (reminds me of: faith can move mountains, so when we belief our actions help, it does – psychologically for sure, practically presumably too, as good hygiene and social distancing are very efficient to combat the virus),” Pfuhl said.
The authors highlight the importance of understanding the psychology behind compliance with public health advice and share one hopeful finding. “In the face of drastic changes to daily habits,” the authors express, “beliefs in efficacious governmental and personal responses and the controllability of the pandemic emerge as factors protecting the well-being of citizens across the world.”
“Humans are really good at adapting to new situations. Our intelligence and cognitive flexibility, respectively, is a large resilience factor in such situations. Social distancing was for many only a physical distancing thanks to modern technology,” Pfuhl said
The study, “Perceived efficacy of COVID-19 restrictions, reactions and their impact on mental health during the early phase of the outbreak in six countries”, was authored by Martin Jensen Mækelæ, Niv Reggev, Natalia Dutra, Ricardo M. Tamayo, Reinaldo A. Silva-Sobrinho, Kristoffer Klevjer, and Gerit Pfuhl.
(Image by Anrita1705 from Pixabay)